Chapter 4 - THE STORY I HAD BEEN TELLING MYSELFSophie’s bath fear began around February.
At first she complained water was too hot.
We lowered the temperature.
Then too cold.
We adjusted.
She screamed if water touched her face.
Dr. Priya Shah, her pediatrician, suggested sensory sensitivity.
“Some children experience temperature, sound, and facial water differently.”
She recommended:
Let Sophie help choose temperature.
Use a handheld sprayer if she preferred.
Keep baths short.
Consider occupational therapy if distress persisted.
Most important:
Do not turn bathing into a power contest.
I remembered that sentence exactly.
Mark hated it.
“She’s five. Hygiene isn’t optional.”
Dr. Shah agreed hygiene mattered.
But:
“Compliance and comfort are not opposites.”
Mark smiled politely.
In the parking lot he said:
“That doctor is teaching her she runs the house.”
I answered:
“She’s teaching us not to terrify her.”
We fought.
Then Mark began doing baths when I worked late.
He reported improvement.
“She sat the whole time.”
“She didn’t scream.”
“She let me rinse her hair.”
I thought:
Maybe he found a method.
I asked what he did.
“Routine.”
“What routine?”
“Same steps every time.”
I let that answer satisfy me.
That became my first failure.
Not causing what he did.
May you like
Not knowing what I could not know.
But accepting vagueness because it made evenings easier.
Related Stories
